Abstract

RODRIGUEZ-DOMINGUEZ, Carles; JARNE ESPACIA, Adolfo  and  CARBONELL, Xavier. Expert psychological reports in family courts: evaluating their structure, methodology, and content. Escritos de Psicología [online]. 2015, vol.8, n.1, pp.44-56. ISSN 1989-3809.  https://dx.doi.org/10.5231/psy.writ.2015.1203.

In Spain, contested divorces involving children are frequent and entail an increased demand for expert psychological reports. This article describes the structure, methodology, and content of psychological reports provided to family courts by private expert psychologists and the family court's expert psychosocial team. The aim was to analyse the formal structure of the reports, their demographic and professional characteristics, methodology, assessment content, guarantees and limitations of the results, professional evaluation of the informant's statements during interviews, recommendations, and psychometric tests used. The reports from the private expert psychologists and those from the expert psychosocial teams were compared and contrasted. A template constructed by the authors was used to analyse 111 family court records of contested divorces. The results showed significant differences between the two types of report in their structure, methodology, assessment content, and psychometric tests. Highly qualified women provided the majority of the expert opinions. The reports were well-structured and included recommendations on the type of custody and custody regime for the non-custodial parent, the evaluation of parental competence, and the relationship of the children with their families.

Keywords : Psychological Report; Contested Divorce; Guardianship and Custody of Minors.

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